Navy Cyber Mission Force Teams Achieve Full Operational Capability

By Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Samuel Souvannason, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet

FORT MEADE, Md., Nov. 2, 2017 — All of the Navy’s Cyber Mission Force teams achieved full operational capability last month, almost a full year ahead of schedule, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet officials announced.

U.S. Cyber Command validated all 40 of the Navy’s Cyber Mission Force teams Oct. 6, officials said.

The full-operational-capability assessment means a unit has achieved all manning, capability and training requirements necessary as part of the Cyber Mission Force, to fully perform its assigned missions as validated by Cybercom. It is not a measurement of overall combat readiness, officials explained, but rather is an externally validated evaluation that the unit has met all of its capability requirements and that it performs its mission as designed.

"Reaching FOC at this point in the development of the Navy's CMF teams is a testament to the extraordinary hard work invested in manning our teams and training our personnel," said Navy Vice Adm. Michael Gilday, commander of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet.

The focus of Cybercom's Cyber Mission Force teams aligns with the Defense Department cyber strategy’s three primary missions: defend DoD networks and ensure their data is held secure; support joint military commander objectives; and, when directed, defend U.S. critical infrastructure, officials said.

Reaching the milestone represents a training throughput of more than 18,000 course completions, 1,800 personnel, and 2,000 hours of executing full-spectrum operations during certification and training events, officials said. However, they added, achieving full operational capability is only a waypoint, as the Navy’s operational need for a well-trained and motivated cyber workforce -- active, reserve and civilian -- will continue to grow in the coming years.

Sustaining Readiness

"Although reaching this milestone is a great accomplishment, the true challenge will be sustaining readiness and the prompt ability to 'answer all bells' when directed by U.S. Cyber Command," Gilday said.

U.S. Fleet Cyber Command serves as the Navy component command to U.S. Strategic Command and Cybercom, and the Navy’s service cryptologic component commander under the National Security Agency and the Central Security Service. Fleet Cyber Command also reports directly to the chief of naval operations as an Echelon II command.

U.S. 10th Fleet is the operational arm of Fleet Cyber Command and executes its mission through a task force structure similar to that of other warfare command. In this role, the 10th Fleet provides operational direction through its Maritime Operations Center here, executing command and control over assigned forces in support of Navy or joint missions in cyber/networks, information operations, electronic warfare, cryptologic/signals intelligence and space.

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Ohio Attorney General Unveils New Technology to Combat Skimmer Crimes
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Cyber crime agents with the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation have a new tool to help local law enforcement agencies investigate crimes involving credit card skimmers. The technology allows the ability to extract data from a majority of credit card skimmers, which criminals use to steal credit card or debit card information from cardholders, according to the attorney general's office. In a recent case, BCI agents were able to identify more than 700 victims of a single skimmer device.
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Editorial: Another Tool for Police to Tackle a Tough Job
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LI Law Enforcement Officials Escalate Tactics Against Drug Dealers
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Long Island law enforcement officials have escalated tactics against drug dealers, charging some alleged dealers linked to the deaths of drug users with manslaughter and tracing dealers through their customers' cellphone calls and text messages. The tactics are spurred by an opioid epidemic that killed more than 500 people in Nassau and Suffolk counties in 2016. Investigators now treat every overdose as they would a crime scene: getting to it as soon as possible to start gathering and processing evidence from a cellphone.
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Unique Program Allows Adams Police to Ensure Safety of Residents With Developmental Disabilities
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Emergency Officials in CT Receive New Protective Gear
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Information Gap Frustrating Unified Crime Fighting in Tallahassee
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Corrections News

County Inmates Release More Than 1,200 Pheasants into the Wild
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Memphis Authorities Fight to Clamp Down on Smuggled Cellphones Behind Bars
USA Today Network, (10/29/2017), Yolanda Jones
District attorneys in Tennessee are asking state legislators to change the law to make possession of cellphones by inmates a crime. Under current law, a person caught trying to bring a phone into a prison can be charged with introduction of contraband into a penal facility, but if authorities catch an inmate with the phone in prison, it is not a crime. Prosecutors want legislators to close the loophole in the law. In Tennessee, inmates lose visitation privileges and are fined if they are caught with cellphones. But they are not criminally charged.
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Hancock County Jail Sees Less Contraband With Body Scanner
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The body scanner at the Hancock County Jail in Indiana has detected about 60 contraband items so far this year, including drugs, a cellphone, tobacco and lighters, according to jail staff. The county started scanning inmates in January 2017. In 2015, 17 people made it through book-in with drugs later found in the jail. So far this year, fewer than six people snuck in contraband.
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Ankle Monitors, GPS Devices Help Drug Courts Save Taxpayer Money
KVIA, (10/23/2017), Kate Bieri
The Third Judicial Drug Court in New Mexico has invested $25,000 in monitoring equipment to better track the clients in the program. The new equipment includes SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) ankle monitors and GPS monitoring equipment, according to a press release. The ankle monitors are already used in many parts of New Mexico. Drug court participants that use the ankle bracelet have a 98.4 percent compliance rate, according to the Third Judicial District Court. Defendants can either sign up to use the monitoring device that tracks their alcohol intake and location, or go to jail.
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Prisons, Nonprofits Coach Juvenile Lifers to Rejoin Society
SF Gate, (10/30/2017), Adam Geller for Associated Press
This article discusses states' efforts to help former juvenile offenders sentenced to life ("lifers") prepare for release from prison on parole and a successful transition into society. This story is part of an AP series examining the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling opening the door for the possible release of former teen offenders sentenced to life without parole.
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Riverside County Adopts "Lean" Approach to Transforming Probation Department
CAFWD, (10/25/2017), Nadine Ono
Integrating the Lean methodology is one method the Riverside County Probation Department is using to improve efficiency. The Lean method evaluates and determines the value of current processes to various stakeholders, then eliminates the unnecessary or redundant steps to streamline those processes. The department's objectives in using the method are to increase positive outcomes for clients, decrease the amount of time it takes to engage with clients and reduce the cost of services, all while maintaining public safety.
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America in Danger of Losing Lead in AI, Innovation Board Chair Says

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2017 — Artificial intelligence is the new frontier, and the Defense Department must invest in this breakthrough or be in danger of not being competitive in the future, said Eric Schmidt, the chairman of the Defense Innovation Board, during a discussion at the Center for a New American Security today.

Schmidt, who also served as the chief executive officer of Google and parent company Alphabet, said of all the recommendations the board made, the most important was that DoD needs to catch up in AI.

He used vision as an example, saying that computers already can watch monotonous things for a long time and then notify a human if something out of the ordinary happens. Tests show, he said, that humans doing the same thing make errors a third of the time. Letting computers do this “seems like the simplest possible thing,” Schmidt said. “And yet, we have this whole tradition of the military standing watch … as if that is a good use of human being.”

AI will not be like humans; it will be different, he said. “The best uses of AI will be in the AI-human collaboration of one type or another,” Schmidt said.

Faster Solutions

He gave a synopsis for the AI problem for the military: “The military is very large and cumbersome. The military as a general rule doesn’t build things, it uses contractors.”

Contractors build what they are asked to build, and the military has not asked for AI systems, he said. “It takes five to 10 to 30 years to go from a spec to the delivery,” Schmidt said. “The core problem is how do you get the leaders, who passionately want to get this stuff done, to deliver these solutions quickly?”

DoD also must do more to draw in technologies from the private sector where the innovation is occurring today, Schmidt said. It is also important to attract the right innovators to the department.

The department leaders understand this need, he said. “The problem is everyone can understand something. But they cannot collectively act,” he said. “You have to come up with ways for them to come up with the resources and so forth. If were in a huge war with a major adversary, I’m sure the rules would be different. Right now, the planning procedures take too long.”

The military moving to cloud computing for its infrastructure will help, Schmidt said. The department is moving faster, “but I think it is not fast enough -- but I said that at Google, too,” he added.

Schmidt spoke about the Chinese AI program. Their AI strategy calls for the nation to have caught up with the U.S. by 2020 and to be better than the U.S. by 2025, and “by 2030 they will dominate the industry,” he said. “The government said that. Weren’t we the ones who invented this stuff? Weren’t we the ones who were going to exploit all this technology for the betterment of American exceptionalism?”

America must invest in research, Schmidt said. “America is the country that leads in these areas, there is every reason to believe that we can continue with this leadership.”